The first film animation was “Humorous Phases of Funny Faces” made in 1906 by American J. Stuart Blacton. But it was in 1919, when 18-year-old Walt Disney teamed up with Ub Iwerks, that the art of film animation took roots. They produced a series of cartoons entitled “Alice in Cartoonland.” The Walt Disney company was founded in 1923, and in 1927 Walt came up with the idea for an animated mouse called Mortimer Mouse. His wife Lillian convinced him to change it to Mickey Mouse.
Mickey debuted the same year in “Plane Crazy,” which was followed with “Galloping Goucho.” In 1928, Disney launched the first animation with synchronized sound, “Steamboat Willy”, with Walt as the voice of Mickey Mouse. In 1937, Disney won a special Oscar for the first full-length animation: “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”
Not to be outdone, two other Americans, Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera, created Tom and Jerry in 1939. They went on to win their first Oscar for Yankee Doodle Mouse in 1943. Six more Oscars would follow for them. But it was a Disney company movie that won the first Best Picture Oscar for an animation, with “Beauty and the Beast” in 1991.
Walter Elisas Disney (12/5/1901 – 12/15/1966): “I only hope that we don’t lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse.”
